Paradise Regained - Hardcover

Milton, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 159818167X ISBN 13: 9781598181678

Publisher: Alan Rodgers Books, 2006

Synopsis

In purely poetic value, Paradise Regained is little inferior to its predecessor. There may be nothing in the poem that can quite touch the first two books of Paradise Lost for magnificence; but there are several things that may fairly be set beside almost anything in the last ten. The splendid "stand at bay" of the discovered tempter -- "'Tis true I am that spirit unfortunate" -- in the first book; his rebuke of Belial in the second and the picture of the magic banquet (it must be remembered that, though it is customary to extol Milton's asceticism, the story of his remark to his third wife and the Lawrence and Skinner sonnets, go the other way); above all, the panoramas from the mountaintop in the third and fourth; the terrors of the night of storm; the crisis on the pinnacle of the temple -- are quite of the best Milton, which is equivalent to saying that they are of the best of one kind of poetry. -- The Cambridge History of English and American Literature

About this title

About the Author

John Milton (1608 - 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, man of letters and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), written in blank verse. Milton's poetry and prose reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. Writing in English, Latin, Greek, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644)-written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship-is among history's most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and freedom of the press.

From AudioFile

PARADISE REGAINED is concerned with the devil's temptation of Christ in the wilderness. It's a substantial subject; nonetheless, the work is often seen by critics as a coda to Milton's masterwork, PARADISE LOST. Anton Lesser, a longtime member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, takes us inside Milton's seventeenth-century blank verse with remarkable clarity and emotion. One can almost hear Milton grappling with the English Civil War, the Reformation, and his personal quest to express Christ's divinity through heightened yet comparatively modest phrases. Lesser's voice is completely at one with Milton's subject matter, meter, and language. After three centuries, this work is much more accessible than one might think. B.P. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Alan Rodgers Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 159818167X
• ISBN 13: 9781598181678
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 108